Algeria Declared Malaria Free

The
World Health Organisation has described it as a “historic achievement”. The
declaration follows warnings that the global fight against malaria has slipped
off track in recent years, with cases rising in many of the countries worst
affected by the disease. Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO’s director
general, said Algeria’s achievement “serves as a model for other countries
working to end this disease once and for all.” Algeria reported their last
locally transmitted cases of malaria in 2013, meaning 38 countries and
territories are now free of the disease. The country’s success in tackling
malaria was due to improved efforts to detect cases of the disease, as well as
free diagnosis and treatment, the WHO said. Algeria is the second country in
the WHO African region to be officially recognised as malaria-free, after
Mauritius, which was certified in 1973. Malaria remains one of the world’s
leading killers. In 2017, there were roughly 219m cases of the disease and more
than 400,000 malaria-related deaths. Approximately 60% of fatalities are among
children aged under five years. In the 10 African countries where malaria is
most prevalent – including Nigeria, Madagascar and the Democratic Republic of
the Congo – there was a reported increase in cases of the disease in 2017
compared with the previous year.
SOURCES: THE
GUARDIAN
People Wait for Zimbabwe’s Mega Deals to Materialise

Together with the enthusiastic support of state media, Mnangagwa
and his officials have announced more than $27bn of planned investment ranging
from new platinum mines to steel mills and hydropower dams. Medicines, fuel and
foreign currency are in short supply, prices of basic goods such as bread are
surging and the International Monetary Fund has forecast the first economic
contraction in 11 years. And many of the investment projects announced by the
government haven’t progressed beyond the memorandum of understanding or
feasibility stage. Few companies with a “rational level of risk
appetite” will invest in the country in its current state, said Jee-A van
der Linde, an economist at NKC African Economics. The African Development Bank estimated
foreign direct investment last year at $470 million, about a third of the $1.1
billion attracted by northern neighbor Zambia and a fraction of the $2.3
billion that flowed into Mozambique, which lies to the east. For some
Zimbabweans, the investment pledges evoke memories of Mugabe, who was prone to
announcing mega-deals that didn’t materialize. For example, in September 2017
Mugabe announced plans to revive Zimbabwe Iron & Steel Works Ltd., once the
second-largest steelmaker in sub-Saharan Africa. The project never got off the
ground.
SOURCES: AL
JAZEERA
Ethiopia’s Cash Cow Programme

Farmers in Ethiopia have joined a program that helps
them borrow money to purchase a dairy cow and get it insured. The milk
would bring in much-needed income – as much as $10.45 a day. As climate change
tests the livelihoods of crop farmers and herders, the innovative scheme aims
to foster a culture of saving and micro-insurance – but not all has gone
smoothly. Run by UK-based nonprofit Farm Africa, the project organizes farmers
into savings groups and links them with micro-finance companies that give them
loans to buy cows for extra income. They then sign up to insurance policies to
ensure they can still repay their loans if their cows die. But some farmers
complain such market-driven initiatives leave participants waiting too long for
the money to come in. According to Farm Africa, since the project launched in
2015, it has established more than 340 village savings and loans associations,
through which households have put away more than $100,000 and farmers have
accessed nearly $70,000 in loans. Addis Ababa-based Nyala Insurance S.C., which
provides the livestock cover, said payouts to a few farmers had been delayed.
That was mainly because of the technology Nyala agents use to record and submit
claims while in the field, said Solomon Zegeye, micro-insurance business
manager at the company.
SOURCES: REUTERS
AFRICA
The UK’s Last Traces of Colonialism in Africa

The United Nations General Assembly has voted overwhelmingly to
condemn the UK’s continued occupation of the Chagos Islands — a humiliating
defeat for London on its continued colonial legacy. The Indian Ocean islands,
which are home to US military base Diego Garcia, were separated from the former
British territory of Mauritius during decolonization in 1968. On Wednesday, UN
member states voted 116-6 for a non-binding resolution endorsing a decision by
the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that separation was illegal and
calling for the UK to return the islands to Mauritius within six months. Only
Australia, Hungary, Israel, the Maldives and the US voted in support of the UK.
While the UN will not force the UK to give up the Chagos Islands, pressure is
on for London to find a way to transition control to Mauritius. That may be
compounded if a deal is worked out to maintain the US base under Mauritian
rule. Home to more than 1,000 US troops and staff, it has been used by the US
Navy, US Air Force and even NASA. The base has helped to launch two invasions
of Iraq, served as a vital landing spot for bombers flying missions across
Asia, including over the South China Sea, and has been linked to US rendition
efforts.
SOURCES: CNN
A Pan-African Jury Praises Amadou’s “Strong, Rebellious” Voice

Cameroonian author Djiaili Amadou has won the inaugural Prix
Orange du Livre en Afrique – an award for French-speaking authors in Africa.
Amadou’s winning novel “Munyal; les larmes de la patience” (Munyal,
the tears of patience) is a tale centering around forced marriage, polygamy and
women’s rights. Prix Orange du Livre en Afrique, serves to “boost African
literature and offer authors more visibility inside and outside the
continent”, Jeune Afrique quotes the jury president as saying. The winner
will receive $11,100 cash price and will benefit from a marketing campaign to
promote their work.
SOURCES: BBC
Is Sudan’s Post-Bashir Honeymoon Over?

At issue is the makeup of a new governing council: Neither the
protesters nor the military leaders are willing to give up a majority of a
proposed transitional government’s sovereign council, or control of the
council’s presidency. The tension is palpable. There is a heavy troop
deployment across Khartoum. Pickup trucks mounted with heavy machine guns are a
common sight. The protesters have likewise fortified the sit-in with tents,
kitchens and barricades of bricks, signposts and fencing ringing the site. The
stakes could not be higher. With Libya, Syria and Yemen in chaos after popular
attempts to challenge dictatorial regimes, many worry Sudan, a chronically unstable
country already suffering from wars in Darfur and along its border with South
Sudan, could succumb to the same fate. The protest movement is also showing
cracks. From the start, women featured prominently at the sit-in, but now the
vast majority of protesters on the streets are men, as are all members of the
leadership’s negotiating team. Some minorities and people from marginalized
areas such as Darfur, who harbor perhaps the biggest grievances against the
regime, also say they are sidelined.
SOURCES: WASHINGTON POST
Getting Ugandan Children Off the Streets

Lawmakers in Uganda have passed a bill making it a criminal
offence to offer money, food or a donation to a street child. Violators of this
new law could face up to six months in jail or a fine. The aim of the law is to
curb the commercial and sexual exploitation of children. Kampala’s mayor, Erias
Lukwago, says the law will also penalise traffickers, agents and parents of the
children found begging or selling items on the streets. The government
estimates there are as many as 15,000 children between the ages of seven and 17
on the city’s streets, and the number continues to climb. Some of the children
are trafficked from villages and given small rooms in slums by their handlers.
The law also makes it illegal to lease or rent a house to a child for immoral
activities or for a child to engage in petty trade.
SOURCES: DAILY
NATION
South Africa’s Three Youngest Lawmakers

At just 23 years old, Sibongiseni Ngcobo is from the official
opposition party the Democratic Alliance. He will be the youngest Member of
Parliament after serving as a party’s councillor, an experience which he
described as eye-opening, “Martin Luther King inspired me when he said our
lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter. I
then said to myself, I have to be in politics and help people.” Naledi
Chirwa, 25, is among the group of student activists who were at the forefront
of the #FeesMustFall movement which advocated for free higher education for
poor students. Chirwa is an actor, feminist and EFF student activist. She
is currently the party’s media and communications officer for the student command.
Nompendulo Mkhatshwa, 25, like also rose to prominence through the
#FeesMustFall protests in 2015. Even then she was open about her love for the
ruling ANC and wore the party’s doek during protests, on magazine covers and in
magazine interviews.
SOURCES: TIMES
LIVE
Championing Animal Rights in Madagascar

An appeals court has upheld a six-year prison term for three
people trafficking in critically endangered radiated tortoises. Two men and a
woman were also fined more than $26,000 when they were convicted last month.
The suspects were arrested last year after neighbors complained of a dreadful
smell in a house. Police found more than 10,000 of the reptiles covering the
floor throughout the house. About 500 tortoises were dead. The Worldwide Fund
for Nature — called the World Wildlife Fund in North America — said this was a
record seizure of tortoises. The survivors were cleaned up and quarantined
before being released back into their natural habitat. Radiated tortoises are
extremely rare, and experts say they may be on the verge of extinction. They
are named for the unusual markings on their shells that look like beams
radiating from the sun. Their shells have blood vessels. Unlike other
tortoises, they can feel their shells being touched.
SOURCES: VOA
American Comedienne Tiffany Haddish is Now Officially an Eritrean

Haddish flew into town late last week to join the country’s 28th
Independence Day celebrations in Asmara. A famed photographer Ghideon Musa and
other Twitter users shared photos of Haddish applying for citizenship. She is
seen going through and filling the relevant forms at what appeared to be a
government office, she was draped in the Eritrean flag whiles completing the process.
Until now, she was widely referred to only as an American with Eritrean
parentage. She was also a main feature at the Independence Day carnival that
hit the streets of the capital Asmara on Wednesday. Haddish is seen on an
open-top vehicle waving at the citizens who had lined up along the streets to
observe the spectacle. The Face2Face Africa news website wrote about Haddish’s
parentage: “Born in Los Angeles to an African-American mother and Eritrean
father, Haddish visited the Horn of Africa nation last year in what was an
emotional homecoming to bury her father and also meet and connect with her
relatives. Haddish’s father, Tsihaye Reda Haddish, entered the United States as
a refugee.”
SOURCES: AFRICA
NEWS